British Lolicons, Beware! Tokyo Lolicons, Relax...

As you probably heard by now, there's been some good news and some bad news for lolicons around the world recently. None of which directly affect most of our readers; or this here writer, for that matter. But, nevertheless, they're both of grave importance, thus deserving of our utmost attention. If nothing else, for the hellish Orwellish precedents they are setting.

Starting with the bad news: British lolicons are fracked. Literally and up the arse, too, if they get caught with this kind of filth, jailed (for up to three years!) and ambushed in the showers while bending over to catch their slippery soap. Outrageous as it may be to any free-thinking individual, as of this April 6 in England and Wales, it is illegal to possess "non-photographic visual depictions of child sexual abuse", or which are "grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character", or depicting various kinds of sexual acts "with or in the presence of a child". Non-photographic! Just some stupid drawings, can you imagine?!

This censorship law is wrong is so many ways, I don't even know where to begin. For one thing, where are the victims? Exactly what child gets hurt by someone browsing an image - any kind of image - drawn by some stranger a million miles away? Why has "lolicon" been mentioned specifically in relation to this new law, but not the "little boys" version, "shotacon"? (according to Backlash) What exactly means "in the presence of a child" - same frame? Same room? Same cartoon, but different page? (cheers The Register) Plus, who gets to decide the age of an imaginary cartoon character? And how come it's illegal to look at drawings of children under the age of 18 having sex, when the age of consent in that country was 16, the last time I checked? So it may be ok to actually do it, but God forbid you draw it?

And just what the hell is so wrong about juvenile sex, anyway? Just imagine how many of us owe our very existence to at least one case of "statutory rape" at some more-or-less-distant point in our family tree. Surely there are worse things happening under the sun. Like... oh, I don't know... murder? Bet you won't see blockbuster action films, bloody war movies, or cheap horror flicks getting banned anytime soon, eh? Of course not, what good is a nation sensitive to killing, when it's time to invade Iran again? Or Iraq, what's the difference, right? Ok, somebody stop me now, cause I'm starting to get lost into the nebulous realm of hypocrisy, and I could go on forever. This law just oozes with hypocrisy!

The sad thing is, this isn't the first time that a nation's fundamental right to freedom of expression is grossly sabotaged. And the even sadder thing is, it's not the last time, either. Take Japan for instance. This exact same issue has been knocking on their door for a while now, and it looks like their lolicons' days are numbered as well. Indeed, even Japan...

Tokyo's metropolitan area in particular was the latest target of such an indecent proposal, legislatively speaking, earlier this year. The underlying idea was pretty similar to the Brits' final solution, paving the way for a thought-police against even 2D depictions of "nonexistent youths", while also adding clauses to restrict the Internet use of minors.

Luckily, in a fine example of lolicon solidarity, manga and anime creators mounted a huge resistance to oppose the proposed legislation. And they actually managed to make a stand, if only temporarily. There was no vote on said bill at the end of March, nor will there be one at the assembly's next regular session in June. The bill's initial draft was so screwed up and ambiguous, that the debate was pushed all the way back to September 2010 - "at the earliest" - according to the latest development on this matter from last week.

So in conclusion... Why do I keep piling onto this wall of text, when I should be browsing loli porn while I still can?